City of the Dead (Alex Delaware, #37)(71)

Milo’s eyebrows rose.

Lisette Montag saw it. “Not that, don’t be gross. Money. They started to talk about money. All the time. Forrest investing in Tyler’s gym and then building a whole bunch more. A whatyoucallit…”

Looking at Bloomfield.

He said, “A fitness franchise.”

“A franchise,” she said. “Like McDonald’s, they were going to be huge.”

Milo said, “You were jealous of that.”

“No, not getting rich. The time they spent together. It was money this, money that, the two of them meeting. Money money money. They were always looking at maps, planning, Forrest used to show Tyler articles about money. They never included me. Not once. I even said hey, Forrest, if you do that for Tyler can you do it for me—let’s make a franchise for salons and skin care, out here in the desert people’s skins get fucked up, it’s perfect.”

She shook her head.

I said, “Forrest said no.”

“He said it was a different financial model, one thing at a time, maybe one day but right now the gym thing was the thing. The thing. Like it already was a thing. He said if I needed money, he could give me some. I said okay, whatever you want but it’s not the money. I could tell he didn’t believe me.”

Milo said, “How?”

“The way he smiled at me,” said Lisette Montag. “I’ve had lots of guys smile that way. Like you’re just a stupid girl, you don’t understand, you’re not smart, you don’t get it. But I didn’t get mad at Forrest, he was an older guy, from a different place. To him women were to be protected. He held doors for me, brought me flowers, never let me pay for dinner, never did the I-left-my-wallet-at-home. I understood his soul. I didn’t get mad.”

“But you were still jealous.”

Al Bloomfield said, “Lissy, I think you should go back to reading.”

The iron in his voice caused Montag to shift her eyes toward him. He remained stony-faced.

“Yes, sir,” she said. Back to the second page. “…so…could I smoke?”

Milo said, “Sorry, no smoking.”

“Not that,” she said. “Some weed or an edible. It’s legal, right?”

“It is, Lisette, but we haven’t come that far policy-wise.”

“Why not?”

“You know,” he said, “I’ll have to ask someone. Now if there’s nothing more you want to—”

“Read,” said Bloomfield.

“Yes, sir, sorry…so…Tyler and Forrest planned their franchise and I was left out of it but it was okay. Forrest and I were in love and I figured it’s time to stop having sex with Tyler because it could be complicated. So I told him. And he was cool with it. Said the main thing with him and Forrest was the franchise, I was a great person and he was happy for me to be happy.”

She rolled her eyes.

I said, “Tyler’s reaction surprised you.”

“Totally. He was always…like a hungry animal. He wanted it, he went for it…”

Bloomfield said, “Please. Stick with reading.”

“Okay, okay, sorry…so…so I told Tyler and that was that and we kept doing Mexican and Italian when they had time off from their franchise-talking and then Forrest changed his mind about doing the franchise. He never said why, he never told me anything to do with it, so when he stopped I learned it from Tyler who was mad.”

She looked up. “Tyler had anger management issues. He could get mad like that.”

She snapped her fingers. “Like that. He’d just get this look and that’s the look he got when he told me about Forrest. But first he got mad at me. I was in the gym and he said come into my office and then he got really scary and started freaking out. Forrest had fucked him over, Forrest had played him like a stupid asshole and did it happen because I convinced Forrest?”

She shuddered. “That’s when he came up to me and held me here.” Touching her shoulders. “His eyes were like…these red dots. I thought he was going to kill me. I said why would you think that, why would that be in your fucking head? And he’s like because Forrest is obsessed with your pussy, you could get him to drive his car off a cliff and I’m like it’s not like that, it’s normal love and I’d never tell him to go off a cliff or do anything he didn’t want to do and he said he didn’t believe me and I started crying and then he believed me. Said the fact that you’re crying shows me you’re being straight. Then he let go of me and said go back to your elliptical machine, I’m going to Forrest and we’re going to have a talk.”

Tears pooled in her eyes and flowed down pale cheeks. “The next day, Tyler came to me and said Forrest was dead, it had been an accident.”

Milo said, “What kind of accident?”

“A heart attack, they were talking and getting angry and all of a sudden Forrest collapsed and Tyler tried to do CPR but it didn’t work and I needed not to tell anyone because if I did I might get in trouble myself.”

“Why?”

“Because I was the girlfriend, the cops always look at the girlfriend or the boyfriend. I said that’s crazy and Tyler’s like I’m telling you, your life’s going to get turned over, they’re going to find your dope and make like the bad girl who did corruption to a rich older guy and even if they stop, you’ll lose your job and your apartment and be totally fucked up.”